Mental Floss

WORDS

The options for laughing online are numerous.

Everyone has a preferred way to laugh online, whether it’s an acronym like IJBOL (“I Just Burst Out Laughing”), a reaction GIF, or a crying laughing emoji. Which one do you use?

Gretchen McCulloch








Windsocks can tell you which way the bise blows.

Geographers and climatologists have a goody bag full of wonderful words that get super specific about wind.

Arika Okrent


You’ll want to start using these butt-related euphemisms from days past.

When talking about the fundament, some terms have slipped through the crack of lexical history—so please enjoy these old and enjoyable terms for the hindquarters.

Mark Peters






The rich history of the English language is full of similar directional words that are cool but uncommon, like ‘pancakewards,’ ‘couchward,’ and ‘pocketwards.’

Mark Peters